Methods for managing applications using semantic modeling and tagging and devices thereof

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides a system and method for managing data using semantic tags. The method may include providing a data model corresponding to a first set of tangible objects where the data model includes a first template class having both properties describing the set of tangible object and a set of semantic tags corresponding to the properties. The method may include receiving a class definition for a second template class for a second set of tangible objects where the second template class inherits, by the class definition, the properties and the sematic tags for the second set of tangible objects.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/793,627, filed Mar. 15, 2013, the text of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

The process of software development involves research, new development, prototyping, modification and reuse. Additionally, developing dynamic applications requires the content developer to organize, manage and deploy a large quantity of content artifacts. In order to accurately develop the content artifacts, the content developer must create a logical model that reflects the physical world. That model is then broken down into common objects in order to provide the highest level of re-usability of artifacts and the lowest cost of maintaining the application(s). As the complexity of the application increases, the number of the common objects also increases thereby making the process of tracking and maintaining these common objects important.

Currently, existing technologies typically store these common objects at many different memory locations. As a result, a content developer has to manually search through a large number of locations for content artifacts to identify common objects relevant for the development of the application. This manual search process is inefficient, time consuming and tedious.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary environment with an application manager computing device that manages application using semantic modeling and tagging.

FIG. 2 illustrates an application manager computing device.

FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary methods for managing applications using semantic modeling and tagging.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An exemplary environment with an application manager computing device that manages application using semantic modeling and tagging is illustrated in FIG. 1. In this particular example, the environment includes the application manager computing device, a plurality of client computing devices, a plurality of servers which are all coupled together by one or more communication networks, although this environment can include other numbers and types of systems, devices, components, and elements in other configurations.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the application manager computing device provides a number of functions including managing application using semantic modeling and tagging, although other types of numbers of computing devices with execute other types and numbers of functions can be used. In this particular example, the application manager computing device includes a central processing unit (CPU) or processor, a memory, an input device, a display device, and a network interface which are coupled together by a bus or other link, although other numbers and types of systems, devices, components, and elements in other configurations and locations can be used.

The processor in the application manager computing device executes a program of stored instructions for one or more aspects of the present technology as described and illustrated by way of the examples herein, although other types and numbers of processing devices and logic could be used and the processor could execute other numbers and types of programmed instructions.

The memory in the application manager computing device stores these programmed instructions for one or more aspects of the present technology is configured to execute these instructions as described and illustrated herein, although some or all of the programmed instructions could be stored and executed or configured for execution elsewhere. A variety of different types of memory storage devices, such as a random access memory (RAM) or a read only memory (ROM) in the system or a floppy disk, hard disk, CD ROM, DVD ROM, or other computer readable medium which is read from and written to by a magnetic, optical, or other reading and writing system that is coupled to the processor in the application manager computing device, can be used for the memory in the application manager computing device.

The input device of the application manager computing device enables a user, such as an administrator, to interact with the application manager computing device, such as to input data and/or to configure, program and/or operate it by way of example only. By way of example only, the input devices may include one or more of a touch screen, keyboard and/or a computer, although other types and numbers of input devices could be used.

The display device of the application manager computing device enables a user, such as an administrator, to view data and/or other information by way of example only. By way of example only, the display device may include one or more of a CRT, LED monitor, or LCD monitor, although other types and numbers of display devices could be used.

The network interface device in the application manager computing device is used to operatively couple and communicate between the application manager computing device and the plurality of client computing devices, the plurality of servers over one or more the communications networks, although other types and numbers of communication networks or systems with other types and numbers of connections and configurations can be used. By way of example only, the one or more the communications networks can use TCP/IP over Ethernet and industry-standard protocols, including NFS, CIFS, SOAP, XML, LDAP, and SNMP, although other types and numbers of communication networks, such as a direct connection, a local area network, a wide area network, modems and phone lines, e-mail, and wireless communication technology, each having their own communications protocols, can be used.

In this particular example, each of the client computing devices and the plurality of servers includes a central processing unit (CPU) or processor, a memory, input/display device interface and a network interface or I/O system, which are coupled together by a bus or other link, although other numbers and types of systems, devices, components, and elements in other configurations can be used.

Each of the client computing devices may utilize the application manager computing device to identify and obtain templates and artifacts for application development, by way of example only, although each of the client computing devices may execute other types and numbers of operations and functions and other types a numbers of computing devices might be coupled to interact with the application manager computing device.

Each of the servers may process requests received from requesting client computing devices via communication networks according to the HTTP-based application RFC protocol or the CIFS or NFS protocol for example. Various network processing applications, such as CIFS applications, NFS applications, HTTP Web Server applications, and/or FTP applications, may be operating on the servers and transmitting data (e.g., files, Web pages) to the application manager computing device in response to requests from the client computing devices. Each of the servers may provide data or receive data in response to requests directed toward the respective applications on the servers from the client computing devices or the application manager computing device. Each of the servers may be hardware or software or may represent a system with multiple servers in a server pool, which may include internal or external networks. In this example the servers may be any version of Microsoft® IIS servers or Apache® servers, although other types of servers may be used.

Although examples of the application manager computing device, the client computing devices and plurality of servers are illustrated and described herein, each of these devices and systems can be implemented on any suitable computer system or computing device. It is to be understood that the devices and systems of the examples described herein are for exemplary purposes, as many variations of the specific hardware and software used to implement the examples are possible, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the relevant art(s).

Furthermore, each of the systems of the examples may be conveniently implemented using one or more general purpose computer systems, microprocessors, digital signal processors, and micro-controllers, programmed according to the teachings of the examples, as described and illustrated herein, and as will be appreciated by those ordinary skill in the art.

In addition, two or more computing devices or systems can be substituted for any one of the systems in any embodiment of the examples. Accordingly, principles and advantages of distributed processing, such as redundancy and replication also can be implemented, as desired, to increase the robustness and performance of the devices and systems of the examples. The examples may also be implemented on computer system or systems that extend across any suitable network using any suitable interface mechanisms and communications technologies, including by way of example only telecommunications in any suitable form (e.g., voice and modem), wireless communications media, wireless communications networks, cellular communications networks, 3G communications networks, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTNs), Packet Data Networks (PDNs), the Internet, intranets, and combinations thereof.

The examples may also be embodied as a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon for one or more aspects of the present technology as described and illustrated by way of the examples herein, as described herein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to carry out the steps necessary to implement the methods of the examples, as described and illustrated herein. Exemplary methods for managing applications using semantic modeling and tagging will now be described below with reference to FIGS. 1-3.

An exemplary process beings with the application manager computing device receiving a request to develop templates and artifacts for a model from a client computing device, although the application manager computing device may receive any other types or requests from any other devices. By way of example only, the application manager computing device receives a request to develop a model to track and manage delivery of food products to retail outlets in a geographic area to determine the return on investment and the selected geographic area is Philadelphia.

Next, the application manager computing device receives information associated with the request to develop a model from the requesting client computing device. In this example, the application manager computing device receives first level information associated with the geographic region, such as the total number of delivery trucks in this region, number of manufacturing plants and number of warehouses from which the food products are delivered to the retail locations in this particular example. Additionally, the application manager computing device also receives second level information, such as driver information of each truck, capacity of load for each truck and temperature sensor and humidity sensor values for refrigerated trucks in this particular example.

Using the received first level and the second level information, the application manager computing device defines a plurality of templates for the requested model, although the application manager computing device can develop, define, and/or obtain any amounts of other types of artifacts associated with developing the requested model. In this example, the application manager computing device defines a Base_Truck template with properties such as capacity of the truck, driver of the truck, inventory and location. Additionally, the application manager computing device defines another template for Refrigerated_Truck with properties including capacity of the truck, driver of the truck, inventory, location and temperature and humidity sensor values.

Upon defining a plurality of templates, the application manager computing device organizes the templates and any other developed artifacts by defining semantic tags for each of the created template and artifacts. By way of example only, the application manager computing device defines the semantic tags using an application vocabulary database. The application vocabulary in this example relates to using terms defined in the information to define semantic tags. For purpose of further illustration in this example, the application manager computing device defines tags such as Truck_Tracking and Region to each of the defined templates and artifacts.

Additionally, if the application manager computing device further defines another template Delivery_Truck from previously created template Base_Truck, the application manager computing device will automatically applies all the properties defined in template Base_Truck including the semantic tags associated to the Base_Truck to the recently created template Delivery_Truck. Additionally, if the application manager computing device further defines another template Refrigerated_Delivery_Truck using both Base_Truck and Refrigerated_Truck, the application manager computing device automatically applies all the properties defined in Base_Truck and Refrigerated_Truck and assigns the tags associated with both Base_Truck and Refrigerated_Truck to the recently created template Refrigerated_Delivery_Truck.

Further, the application manager computing device stores each of the tagged templates and artifacts within the memory of the application manager computing device, although the application manager computing device can store the templates and artifacts at other locations.

Once the template artifacts have been defined to meet the requirements of the solution, specific instances of templates are created. In this example, each specific delivery truck in the Philadelphia region is instantiated from one of the previously defined templates, and the application manager computing device will automatically apply all the properties and characteristics defined in the template that is defined for that instance. Semantic tags describing the specific instances in the model are also applied.

Next, the application manager computing device sends out a notification to the requesting client computing device indicating completion of defining and organizing the templates and artifacts to the requesting client computing device.

When the application manager computing device receives another request from the requesting client computing device to provide all the defined templates and artifacts associated with the requested model, the application manager computing device provides a graphical representation of the organized templates and the artifacts to the requesting client computing device, although the application manager computing device can provide the templates and the artifacts in any other format. The graphical representation provided by the application manager computing device would include each of the templates and artifacts with their associated tags. In this example, the templates Base_Truck and Refrigerated_Truck would be graphically represented with tags Truck_Tracking and Region-Philly. Additionally, the graphical representation would include the interconnection between each of the template and artifact and accordingly in this example, the graphical representation would indicate that the Delivery_Truck template was inherited from Base_Truck template and Refrigerated_Delivery_Truck template was inherited from Base_Truck and Refrigerated_Truck templates.

The application manager computing device also may provide an option for searching for additional information to the requesting client computing device using the tags. In this particular example, the application manager computing device could provide an option of searching for all artifacts and templates with tag Truck_Tracking Upon receiving the confirmation to search from the client computing device, the application manager computing device searches for all templates and artifacts tagged as Truck_Tracking present within the memory and also the servers and provides the searched results to the requesting client computing device. Additionally, the application manager computing device assists the requesting client computing device to select any of the search results, modify the select search result and finally store the modified content.

The application manager computing device also may provide an option for searching for additional information to the requesting client computing device using the tags, and transporting the relevant content artifacts from one system to another. A typical example is to move the content artifacts for a new application from a development system to a testing system, and finally to a production system using the previously defined semantic tags.

By providing the graphical representation of the templates and artifacts, the technology disclosed provides advantages of assisting the user of the client computing device to understand the created model quickly and effectively. Additionally, by organizing the templates and artifacts using tags, the user of the client computing device can quickly search for any additional information using the tags. Further, by organizing the created artifacts and templates, any new user or developer of the requesting client computing device will be able to quickly understand the model without manually searching for each of the template and artifacts and then trying to understand the connection between them.

Having thus described the basic concept of the invention, it will be rather apparent to those skilled in the art that the foregoing detailed disclosure is intended to be presented by way of example only, and is not limiting. Various alterations, improvements, and modifications will occur and are intended to those skilled in the art, though not expressly stated herein. These alterations, improvements, and modifications are intended to be suggested hereby, and are within the spirit and scope of the invention. Additionally, the recited order of processing elements or sequences, or the use of numbers, letters, or other designations therefore, is not intended to limit the claimed processes to any order except as may be specified in the claims. Accordingly, the invention is limited only by the following claims and equivalents thereto. 

1-18. (canceled)
 19. A system for providing application management using semantic modeling and tagging, the system comprising: at least one memory operable to store a vocabulary database; and a processor communicatively coupled to the at least one memory, to one or more tangible objects, and to a plurality of client computing devices, the processor being operable to: receive, from one of the plurality of client computing devices, over a communications network, a request to develop a model for managing data associated with the one or more tangible objects; receive, from the one of the plurality of client computing devices, over the communications network, information associated with the request to develop the model; define one or more templates corresponding to the model identified in the request based on the information associated with the request, wherein each of the one or more templates comprises one or more property fields, and wherein each of the one or more templates is associated with one of the one or more tangible objects in the model; define one or more semantic tags for each of the one or more templates, the one or more semantic tags being defined using the vocabulary database; store the one or more templates in the at least one memory; create, for each of the one or more tangible objects, a corresponding template instance using the one or more templates, wherein each template instance inherits semantic tags and property fields from the corresponding one or more templates, and wherein the property fields of each template instance are assigned property values of the corresponding one or more tangible objects.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the vocabulary database comprises terms defined in the information associated with the request.
 21. The system of claim 20, wherein the information associated with the request includes at least one of first level information and second level information, wherein the first level information includes geographic information associated with the model, and wherein the second level information includes information associated with each of the one or more tangible objects in the model.
 22. The system of claim 20, wherein the processor is further operable to generate a graphical representation of the one or more templates corresponding to the model, and wherein the graphical representation comprises one or more of (i) the semantic tags of each of the one or more templates, and (ii) the relationships between the one or more templates.
 23. The system of claim 19, wherein the property values are retrieved from the one or more tangible objects.
 24. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor is further operable to: receive, from one of the plurality of client computing devices, a search request including at least one search tag; search among the one or more templates stored in the memory for a template associated with a semantic tag matching the search tag; and transmit search results to the client computing device, the search results including results of the search performed using the search tag.
 25. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor is further operable to transmit the one or more templates between two or more of (i) a development system, (ii) a testing system, and (iii) a product system, using the semantic tags.
 26. A method for providing application management using semantic modeling and tagging comprising: receiving, by an application manager computing device, from one of a plurality of client computing devices, over a communications network, a request to develop a model for managing data associated with the one or more tangible objects, wherein the application manager computing device is communicatively coupled to one or more tangible objects and to the plurality of client computing devices receiving, by the application manager computing device, from the one of the plurality of client computing devices, over the communications network, information associated with the request to develop the model; defining, by the application manager computing device, one or more templates corresponding to the model identified in the request based on the information associated with the request, wherein each of the one or more templates comprises one or more property fields, and wherein each of the one or more templates is associated with one of the one or more tangible objects in the model; defining, by the application manager computing device, one or more semantic tags for each of the one or more templates, the one or more semantic tags being defined using a vocabulary database stored in a memory of the application manager computing device; storing, by the application manager computing device, the one or more templates in the at least one memory; creating, by the application manager computing device, for each of the one or more tangible objects, a corresponding template instance using the one or more templates, wherein each template instance inherits semantic tags and property fields from the corresponding one or more templates, and wherein the property fields of each template instance are assigned property values of the corresponding one or more tangible objects.
 27. The method of claim 26, wherein the vocabulary database comprises terms defined in the information associated with the request.
 28. The method of claim 27, wherein the information associated with the request includes at least one of first level information and second level information, wherein the first level information includes geographic information associated with the model, and wherein the second level information includes information associated with each of the one or more tangible objects in the model.
 29. The method of claim 27, wherein the processor is further operable to generate a graphical representation of the one or more templates corresponding to the model, and wherein the graphical representation comprises one or more of (i) the semantic tags of each of the one or more templates, and (ii) the relationships between the one or more templates.
 30. The method of claim 26, wherein the property values are retrieved from the one or more tangible objects.
 31. The method of claim 26, further comprising: receiving, by the application manager computing device, from one of the plurality of client computing devices, a search request including at least one search tag; searching, by the application manager computing device, among the one or more templates stored in the memory for a template associated with a semantic tag matching the search tag; and transmitting, by the application manager computing device, search results to the client computing device, the search results including results of the search performed using the search tag.
 32. The method of claim 26, further comprising transmitting, by the application manager computing device, the one or more templates between two or more of (i) a development system, (ii) a testing system, and (iii) a product system, using the semantic tags. 